The HDTV Recorder and Blu-ray
High Definition Video Recorder

The HDTV recorder is a recorder that is capable of recording HDTV broadcasts in either 720p or 1080i and then be viewed in 1080p resolution. A DVD recorder cannot record HDTV broadcasts as DVD is not a High Definition (HD) format.

The DVD recorder only has a maximum resolution of 480i but recordings can be played back in 480p resolution on a progressive scan DVD player. The 480i resolution can also further be upscaled to 720p/1080i/1080p using an upscaling DVD player.

DVD Recorders with ATSC Tuners

With recent technological advances you can now buy a DVD recorder with an ATSC tuner built-in enabling it to receive Digital TV and HDTV broadcasts. These ATSC tuners are also known as HDTV tuners, or Integrated HD Tuners.

ATSC refers to the set of standards set by the Advanced Television Systems Committee for digital television signal transmissions that have been phased in to replace the analog television systems.

Since a large number of consumers already own DVD players, many are wondering whether you can record and play HDTV material on your current DVD recorder/player. The answer is no, DVD recorders were not designed to record or playback HDTV broadcasts.

The newer DVD recorders, that are equipped with the ATSC tuner, are able to receive and record Digital TV and HDTV signals. However, these recordings are not recorded in HD but ordinary DVD standard resolution. What happens here is that the HDTV signals are downscaled to the standard DVD definition.

Those DVD recorders with upscaling playback capabilities can increase the playback resolution to 1080i or 1080p. However, these resolutions are not the same as true high definition. Also, the picture will however, look better than it would in standard definition without upscaling.

Blu-ray HD Recording

Currently on the market is the Blu-ray format which is capable of true High Definition recording. Blue-ray technology is geared towards high definition video recording.

High definition recording is at present mostly limited to Blu-ray Writers installed in PCs or to a few stand-alone-dedicated Blu-ray recorders.

A classic example of the new generation of HDTV recorder is the SONY BDZ-S77 DVD recorder which records high definition video in MPEG-2 and sound in Dolby Digital and MPEG-2 AAC.

AVCHD

AVCHD, which stands for Advanced Video Codec High Definition, was jointly invented by Matsushita (the makers of Panasonic) and Sony. With it, you can record 720p and 1080i signals onto multiple disc and tape formats, such as, miniDVD, MiniDV tape, Hard Drives and memory cards etc. For recording it uses the MPEG4 compression format. Discs recorded with this format can be played back on your Blu-ray disc player but, unfortunately, not on your DVD player.

At present a wide range of Blu-ray HD recorders are now available on the market, as more manufacturers start competing for the HDTV recorder market. We now also, see more mainstream models appearing, and at more affordable prices.